(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to an endless belt having an annular belt main body, and to an image forming apparatus that forms an image consisting of a fixed toner image on a recording medium.
(ii) Related Art
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses such as printers and copiers have become pervasive, and techniques concerning various elements constituting such image forming apparatuses also have become pervasive. Of the image forming apparatuses, an image forming apparatus employing an electrophotography system forms a static latent image by exposing a surface of a charged photosensitive body to light, develops the static latent image to form a toner image, and finally transfers the toner image on a recording medium at a predetermined transfer position, thereby forming an image. One such image forming apparatus employs, in the process of the image formation, an endless belt that is stretched around support rolls and that circulates and moves as a unit that carries the formed toner image to a transfer position, or as a unit that transfers the recording medium to the transfer position. In an image forming apparatus that forms a color image, since it is necessary to superpose toner images of many colors on one another, the endless belt is used in many cases as a carrying unit that carries a toner image while sequentially receiving transfer of toner images each having different color, or as a transfer unit of a recording medium that sequentially receiving transfer of toner images each having different color.
In a field of the image forming apparatuses of recent years, it is increasingly required to provide an image forming apparatus that has high output speed as well as high endurance capable of withstanding, for example, temperature variation and high volume output.